Dell Precision M6700 : Nvidia Turing (RTX) card discussion thread

Hi, I'm creating this thread to gather information about Turing support on the M6700 (the M6800 should be also similar), as for now Pascal support on the M6700 is very limited, only Quadro P3000, P4000 and P5000 are know supported (need a new vbios and optimus or direct eDP display, however Premiere Color display got brightness issues). From my case (Quadro P4000) it seems like UEFI video oprom (UEFI only in the bios) is working better than legacy (no wait time at boot), I think that Turing should have the same behavior.
As for video output, Turing card can't outpput analog video, only DisplayPort, HDMI and eDP would work without optimus.
I know that @razor0601 got his hand on a RTX3000 HP and a M6700, he would like to share his experience and get some help to make this card working in the M6700.
I think that some guys like @RMSMajestic or @Aaron44126 and maybe more would be interested in this discovery.

 

...Has he actually gotten the card to work in the M6700 at all? I'd be interested if this is the case.

My take is that I expect it to be impossible for a few reasons.

Pascal cards only work in the M6700/M6800 with an earlier engineering sample vBIOS flashed on. It seems that NVIDIA made a breaking change to the vBIOS sometime later in the development of the Pascal series, which breaks compatibility with Precision M6700 and M6800 systems. I expect that this has been carried forward to the Turing card vBIOS; except, now there will be no chance of finding a vBIOS "old enough" to not have the breaking change because the change was made back in the Pascal development timeframe. You can't flash custom vBIOS images on these cards either because of NVIDIA's digital signature check (unless someone has found a way around this sometime in the past 18 months; I haven't been paying attention).

Even if a suitable vBIOS can be found, there is the challenge of flashing it. The M6700 with a Pascal card installed will not get to the point of loading an OS. You'd have to use a hardware flasher or a different system to perform the vBIOS flash. Add to that the fact that (some?) HP Pascal MXM cards don't even have a vBIOS chip, the vBIOS is stored in the hosting system's motherboard BIOS. Have we confirmed whether or not there is a vBIOS chip on the HP RTX card? If there is not, then this project is dead.

Happy to be proven wrong. In fact, I might go out and buy a RTX 3000 (or 4000?) card myself in that case. I just don't have high expectations. I am basing this on the assumption that Turing cards will have the same issue that Pascal cards had right out of the gate; this could be incorrect and the card could just work immediately when dropped in. I have seen no stories about attempts to put a RTX card in a Precision system earlier than the 7X30 series.

Video output is as you said. You'd only be able to run with Optimus enabled if you do not have an eDP panel.

 

This are the two picture he sended me, HP card and the cooling is not compatible.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/d75d5fc5-8ea3-43b3-af27-5d9722453b9f-jpeg.185471/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/99b6c3fb-9f8f-4da5-8291-e2fd194618b0-jpeg.185472/
He was using optimus and legacy, he didn't install drivers as far as I undertsand but I sended him a modded .inf file, the card is working fine in an Alienware.

I think the best deal out of these card is the RTX4000.

 

Can't see the pictures (no permission).
Alienware systems were also able to take Pascal MXM cards without issue.

These Quadro RTX MXM cards don't see to be easy to find for purchase. (It's easier to find DGFF cards, hmm...)

[Edit]
Found a Quadro RTX 4000 HP card, it looks like it is an odd shape. It would be tricky to fit in the Precision M6700, the part where the RAM bumps out is right against the top edge of the system. M6800 would probably be OK.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/163993112018

Spoiler

[Edit 2]
Actually RTX 3000 looks the same; is this what his card looks like?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163834637289

Just to confirm, he was able to boot Windows on Precision M6700 with the RTX card installed (but didn't install a driver)... that is what I am understanding? If that's the case then the "hard part" is done.
You also said the cooling is not compatible?
I don't need to be tempted to buy one of these but I think I probably will anyway if it works :-\
Though I'm looking to fully refresh with a new maxed out Precision in about two years.

 

Hi there. Yes, in your link that is exactly the RTX 3000 which I have. And yes, I installed a modified driver by myself. My Bios was A08(now A20). And I am on legacy.
It is really hard to fit that card in. Heatsink has to be modified. No holes matches.
At the moment I give it a second run.
Because yesterday I didn’t have sound.

 

Hmm. Looking at the pictures more closely I can see that the position of the holes would be an issue. I wonder if any other vendor produces more normal-shaped Quadro RTX MXM cards.

Anyway. The heatsink compatibility issue really puts me off from attempting this upgrade. I can go another couple of years without playing the fanciest games. Still, nice to know that Quadro RTX cards can boot on this system without hassle. I wish that it was as simple for Pascal cards.

 

because of GDDR6 I don't think the layout will be different, these card are the best turing card with this form factor we can get I think

 

I have still the no sound problem. And the problem is when I installed the card and with no driver installed. Can I get a driver from Dell? Can‘t find one

 

use latest nvidia drivers from nvidia website, you can't use a driver without modifying the inf file I provided you in your situation

 

GeForce 2060/2070 is even worse :-\

Spoiler

I can't even find any hint of GeForce 1650/1660 MXM.
MXM is really dead :-\